August
August / 133 3 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. (Mt 17: 8) I was greatly helped many years ago by the following advice:
"For one look at self take ten looks at Christ." It was entirely contrary to all I had previously thought right; but it carried conviction to my soul, and delivered me from a habit of morbid self-examination and introspection that had made my life miserable for years. It was an unspeakable deliverance. My experience since leads me to believe that an even better motto would be, "Take no looks at self at all, but look only and always at Christ."
4. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, / for he will pluck my feet out of the net. (Ps 25:15) As long as our eyes are towards our own feet, and towards the net in which they are entangled, we only get into worse tangles.
But when we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, he plucks our feet out of the net. This is a point in practical experience that I have tested hundreds of times, and I knowit is a fact. No matter what sort of a snarl I may have been in, whether inward or outward, I have always found that, while I kept my eyes on the snarl, and tried to unravel it, it grew worse and worse; but, when I turned my eyes away from the snarl, and kept them fixed on the Lord, he always, sooner or later, unraveled it and delivered me.
One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:13-14)
Have you ever watched a farmer plowing a field? If so, you will have noticed that, in order to make straight furrows, he is obliged to fix his eye on a tree or a post in the fence or some object at a farther side of the field, and to guide his plow unwaveringly toward that object. If he begins to look back at the furrow behind him in order to see whether he has made a
134 / Daily He Leads Me straight furrow, his plow begins to jerk from side to side, and the furrow he is making becomes a zigzag. If we would make straight paths with our feet, we must do what the Apostle says he did: we must forget the things that are behind and press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. To forget the things that are behind is an essential part of pressing forward towards the prize of our high calling; and I am convinced this prize can never be reached, unless we will consent to this forgetting. When we do consent to it, we come near to putting an end to all our self-examination.
These all look to thee, / to give them their food in due season. (Ps 104: 27) We complain of spiritual hunger, and torment ourselves to know why our hunger is not satisfied. Having our eyes upon ourselves and on our own hunger will never bring a supply of spiritual food. When a man's larder is empty and he is starving, he does not spend time looking at the emptiness of his larder.
Instead, he looks to the source from which he hopes or expects to get a supply of food. To examine self is to be like a man who spent his time examining his empty larder, instead of going to the market for a supply to fill it. No wonder some Christians seem to be starving to death in the midst of all the fullness there is for them in Christ. They never see that fullness, for they never look at it. They cry out, "O Lord, reveal yourself", but, instead of looking at God, they look at themselves, and keep their gaze steadily fixed on their own feelings, and then wonder at the "mysterious dealings" of God, in hiding his face from them.
The prophet reproaches the children of Israel, telling them that they "set up their abominations in the house which is called by God's name." When Christians spend their time minutely examining their own condition, raking up all their sins, and bemoaning their shortcomings, what is this but to set up the "abomination" of their own sinful self upon the chief pedestal in their hearts, and to make it the center of their whole
August / 135 | religious life, and of all their care and efforts? They gaze at this great, big, miserable self until it fills their whole horizon, and they lose sight of the Lord completely.
Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (Jn 1:29) We are never anywhere commanded to behold our emotions, nor our experiences, nor even our sins, but we are commanded to turn our backs upon all these, and to behold the Lamb of God, who takes away our sins. One look at Christ is worth more for salvation than a million looks at self; and yet, so mistaken are our ideas, we seem unable to avoid thinking that self-examination must have in it some saving power, because it makes us so miserable. We have to travel a long way on our heavenly journey before we fully learn that there is no saving power in misery and that a cheerful, confident faith is the only successful attitude for the aspiring soul.
For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.
And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
(2 Cor 5:14-15}) All through the Bible we are taught this lesson of death to self and life in Christ alone. We tell Christ, "You are all I want." But as a matter of fact we really want a great many other things. We want spiritual "successes" and experiences. And we wonder continually at our failures. But there is no healing or transforming power in gazing at our failures. The only road to Christlikeness is to behold, not our own hatefulness, but his goodness and beauty. We grow like what we look at, and if we spend our lives looking at our hateful selves, we shall become more and more hateful. Beholding self, we are more and more changed into the image of self. If we spend our time beholding the glory of
136 / Daily He Leads Me the Lord, that is, letting our minds dwell upon his goodness, and his love, and trying to dwell in his Spirit, the inevitable result will be that we shall be, slowly but surely, changed into the image of the Lord upon whom we are gazing.
"Yet once more | will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. (Heb 12:26-27)
It might seem to those who do not understand the deepest ways of love, that no trials or hardness could ever come into the lives of God's children. But if we look deeply into the matter, we shall see that often love itself must bring the hardness. "The Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives" (Heb 12:6).
If love sees those it loves going wrong, it must, because of this very love, do what it can to save them; and the love that fails to do this is only selfishness. Therefore, the God of love, when he sees his children resting their souls on things that can be shaken, must necessarily remove those things from their lives, in order that they may be driven to rest only on the things that cannot be shaken; and this process of removing is sometimes very hard.
) 0 Every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it. (Mt 7:26-27) If our souls are to rest in peace and comfort, it can only be on unshakable foundations. No one can rest comfortably in a shaking bed, or sit in comfort on a rickety chair.
To be reliable, foundations must always be unshakable. The house of the foolish man, which is built on the sand, may
August / 137 present a very fine appearance in clear and sunshiny weather; but when storms arise, and the winds blow, and floods come, that house will fall, and great will be the fall of it. The wise man's house, on the contrary, is built on the rock and is able to withstand all the stress of the storm.
It is possible in the Christian life to build one's spiritual house on such insecure foundations that when storms beat upon it, the ruin of that house is great. Many a religious experience that has seemed fair enough when all was going well in life has tottered and fallen when trials have come, because its foundations have been insecure. It is therefore of vital importance to each one of us to see to it that our Christian life is built upon "things that cannot be shaken." i The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, / my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge.
(2 Sm 22:2) We Christians pay lip sevice to the fact that Christ is the only rock upon which to build. But practically, perhaps unconsciously, we do our best to build on things other than Christ. For instance, we think we must have just the right feelings or the right doctrines or dogmas. If we were perfectly honest with ourselves, I suspect we would often find that we depend almost entirely upon these additions of our own rather than on Christ.
If we are to build upon the rock of Jesus Christ, we must once and for all realize that the Lord is enough for our salvation—our
Creator and Redeemer, and our all-sufficient portion.
The "foundation of God stands sure," and it is the only foundation that does. Therefore we need to be "shaken" loose from every other foundation so that we may be forced to rest on the foundation of God alone. This explains the necessity for those "shakings" through which so many Christians seem called to pass. Not in anger, but in tenderest love, God shakes our earth and our heaven, until all that "can be shaken" is removed, and only those "things which cannot be shaken" are left behind.
138 / Daily He Leads Me I wy Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. (Heb 12: 28) Hebrews tells us that the things that are shaken are the "things that are made." This is true of the things that are manufactured by our own efforts, the feelings that we get up, doctrines that we elaborate, good works that we perform. These are not bad things in themselves. But when the soul begins to rest on them instead of upon the Lord, he is compelled to "shake" us from them.
There are times when our experience seems to us as settled and immovable as the roots of the everlasting mountains. But there comes an upheaval, and all our foundations are shaken and thrown down, and we are ready to despair, and to question whether we can be Christians at all. Sometimes it is an upheaval in our outward circumstances, and sometimes it is in our inward experience. If people have rested on their good works and their faithful service, the Lord is often obliged to take away all power for work or else all opportunity, in order that the soul may be driven from its false resting place, and forced to rest in the Lord alone. Only God's kingdom cannot be shaken.
I Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompense. (Jb 15:31, KJV)
We are told that if we "trust in vanity," vanity shall be our recompense; and many times we have found this to be true.
Have you ever crossed a dangerous swamp full of quicksand, where every step was a risk, and where firm-looking ground continually deceived you into a false dependence, causing you to sink in the mire and water concealed beneath its deceptive appearances? If you have, you will be able to understand what it means to "trust in vanity," and you will appreciate the blessedness of anything that shows you the rottenness of your false dependencies and shall drive you to trust in that which is safe and permanent. When our feet are walking on miry clay, we can have nothing but welcome for the divine guide who shall bring
}) August / 139 us out from the clay, and shall "set our feet upon a rock," and "establish our goings," even though the ways in which he calls us to walk may seem narrow and hard.
I By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance....
For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Heb 11:8, 10)
In order to reach the "city which has se we must go rr ft fe tae a —— from every earthy we.
Everything in nee s life st could be shaken was shaken. He was emptied from vessel to vessel, all his resting-places disturbed, and no settlement or comfort anywhere. Like Abraham, we are looking for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and therefore we, too, will need to be emptied from vessel to vessel. But we do not _ realize this, an en the overturnings and shakings ¢ come, we are in a despair, and think we shall never reach the city at all. But it is these very shakings that make it possible for us to reach it.
The psalmist had learned this, and after all the shakings and emptyings of his eventful life, he cried, "For God alone my soul
-anlk in silence, / for my hope is from him. / He only is my rock d'my_salvation, /my fortress; | shall not be shaken. /On God ae ts my deliverance and my honor,/ my mighty rock, my refuge is God." At last God was everything to him; and then he found _ that God was enough.
I We will not fear though the earth should change, / though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea....
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,/ the holy habitation of the Most High. / God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. (Ps 46:2, 4-5] "She shall not be moved'—what an inspiring declaration! Can it be possible that we, who are so easily moved by the things of earth, can arrive at a place where nothing can upset our temper
140 / Daily He Leads Me or disturb our calm? Yes, it is possible; and the Apostle Paul knew it. When he was on his way to Jerusalem, where he foresaw that "bonds and afflictions" awaited him, he could say triumphantly, "But none of these things move me." Everything in Paul's life and experience that could be shaken had been shaken, and he no longer counted his life, or any of life's possessions, dear to himself. If we will but let God have his way with us, and come to the same place, neither the little things of life nor the great and heavy trials can have power to move us from the peace that passes understanding.
I Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. (Heb 12:28) A great many people are afraid of the consuming fire of God, but that is only because they do not understand what it is. The fire of God's love must, in the very nature of things, consume everything that can harm his people; and if our hearts are set on being what the love of God would have us be, his fire is something we shall not be afraid of, but shall eagerly welcome.
Let us thank God that the consuming fire of his love will not cease to burn until it has refined us as silver is refined. For the promise is that he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purge us as gold and silver are purged, in order that we may offer him an offering in righteousness. If we will but submit to this purifying process, we are told that we will become pleasing to the Lord, and all nations will call us blessed.
To be pleasing to the Lord may seem impossible when we consider our shortcomings and our unworthiness. But when we think of this lovely consuming fire of God's love, we can be of good heart and take courage, for he will not fail or be discouraged until all our dross and reprobate silver is burned up, and we ourselves come forth in his likeness and conformed to his image.
August / 141 I The soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. (Nm 21:4, KJV) The church of Christ abounds in people who are "discouraged because of the way." Either inwardly or outwardly things look all wrong, and there seems no hope of escape. Their souls faint in them, and their spiritual lives are full of discomfort and misery.
There is nothing that more continually and successfully invites defeat. The secret of failure or success in any matter lies far more in the soul's interior attitude than in any other cause or causes. It is a law of our being, that the inward man counts for far more in every conflict than anything the outward man may do or may possess.
Nowhere is this more true than in the spiritual life. Again I must repeat what I find it necessary to say so continually, that the Bible declares from beginning to end, that faith is the law of the spiritual life, and that according to our faith it shall be done to us. Since faith and discouragement cannot, in the very nature of things, exist together, it is perfectly obvious that discouragement must be an absolute barrier to faith. Where discouragement rules, the converse to the law of faith must rule also, and it shall be done to us, not according to our faith, but according to our discouragement. In fact, just as courage is a faith in good, so discouragement is a faith in evil; and, while courage opens the door to good, discouragement opens it to evil. l But I will hope continually, / and will praise thee yet more and more. (Ps 71:14) An old saying goes like this: "All discouragement is from the devil.' I believe this is a far deeper and more universal truth than we have yet fully understood. Discouragement cannot have its source in God. The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ is a religion of faith, of good cheer, of courage, of hope. "Be discouraged," says our lower nature, "for the world is a place of temptation and sin."
"Be of good cheer," says Christ, "for I have overcome the world."
142 / Daily He Leads Me There cannot possibly be any room for discouragement in a world which Christ has overcome.
Moses said to the Lord, "Oh, my Lord, 1 am not eloquent,
either heretofore or since thou hast spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of tongue. ... send, I pray, some cther person." (Ex 4:10, 13) The Lord had called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; and Moses, looking at his own natural infirmities and weaknesses, was discouraged. He tried to excuse himself by saying that he was not eloquent and that no one would listen to him. Naturally, one might think that Moses had plenty of cause for discouragement, and for the kind of discouragement most likely to assail us. Like Moses, we distrust our own eloquence, or our own power to convince those to whom we are to be sent; we shrink from the work to which the Lord may be calling us. But notice how the Lord answered
Moses. He did not do what Moses would probably have liked best: try to convince him that he really was eloquent, or that his tongue was not slow of speech. He passed all this by, as of no account whatever, and simply called attention to the fact that, since he had made man's mouth and would himself be with the mouth he had made, there could not possibly be any cause for discouragement, even if Moses did have all the infirmities of speech of which he had complained. "Then the Lord said to him,
'Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."
» And the Lord turned to him [Gideon] and said, "Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you" {Jgs 6:14) The Lord had called Gideon to deliver his people from the oppression of the Midianites. But Gideon was a poor unknown man, of no family or position and of no apparent fitness for such
August / 143 _ agreat mission. Looking at himself and his own deficiencies, he naturally became discouraged and said, "Pray, Lord, how can | deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I _ am the least in my family." Other men, he felt, who had power
_ and influence, might perhaps accomplish this great work, but not one so poor and insignificant as himself. How familiar this sort of talk must sound to anyone who has been a victim of _ discouragement. How sensible and reasonable it seems. But what did the Lord think of it? "And the Lord said to him, 'But I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man." God says only, I will be with you. Not one word of encouragement does he give Gideon—nor us—about our own capacities or fitness for the work required, but merely the bare statement of the fact, as though it is sufficient for all possible needs. To all words of discouragement this is the invariable answer: | will be with you. It is an answer that precludes all possibility of argument or of any further discouragement. |, your
Creator and your Redeemer; I, your strength and your wisdom; I, your omnipresent and omniscient God—I will be with you and will protect you through everything; no enemy shall hurt you, no strife of tongues shall disturb you; my presence shall be your safety and your sure defense.
Ws Be not afraid of them, / for I am with you to deliver you, / says the Lord. (Jer 1:8) A subtle cause of discouragement is to be found in what is called the fear of man. There seems to exist in this world a company of beings called they who rule over life with an iron hand of control. What will they say? What will they think?
These are among the most frequent questions that assail the timid soul when it seeks to work for the Lord. At every turn this omnipotent and ubiquitous they stands in our way to discourage us and make us afraid. This form of discouragement is likely to come under the subtle disguise of consideration for the opinion of others; but it is especially dangerous, because it exalts this they into the place of God, and esteems their
144 / Daily He Leads Me opinions above his promises. The only remedy here, as in all other forms of discouragement, is simply the reiteration of the fact that God is with us. For he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Therefore, we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man may do to me." How can any heart, however timid, dare to indulge in discouragement, in the face of such assertions as these?
The men of Ai killed about thirty-six men of them, and chased them before the gate... and slew them at the descent.... Then Joshua rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord. (Jos 7:5-6)
The most common form of discouragement arises from our own failures. This was the kind of discouragement that the children of Israel suffered after their defeat at Ai. They had disobeyed the Lord and therefore could not stand before their enemies. So great was their discouragement that the hearts of the people melted and Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth. Discouragement and despair seemed the only proper response after such failure. But evidently the Lord thought otherwise, for he said to Joshua, "Arise, why have you thus fallen upon your face?... Up, sanctify the people." The proper thing to do after a failure is not to abandon ourselves to utter discouragement, humble as this may appear, but at once to face the evil and get rid of it, and to once again consecrate ourselves to the Lord. "Up, sanctify yourselves," is always God's command. "Lie down and be discouraged," is always our temptation.
Though your sins are like scarlet, / they shall be as white as snow. (Is 1:18} You may ask whether a sense of sin produced by the conviction of the Holy Spirit ought not to cause discouragement. If I recognize myself as a sinner, how can I help being discouraged? To this I answer that the Holy Spirit does not convict us of sin in order to discourage us, but to encourage us.
August / 145 His work is to show us our sin, not that we may lie down in despair under its power, but that we may get rid of it. A good mother points out the faults of her children in order to help them correct those faults; and the convictions of the Holy Spirit are, in truth, one of our greatest privileges, if we only had the sense to see it; for they mean, not that we are to give up in discouragement, but that we are to be encouraged to believe that deliverance is coming.
A good housewife discovers the stains on her table-linen, not in order that she may throw it aside as no longer fit for use, but in order that she may have it cleansed for future use. If she has a good laundress, she will not be discouraged by the worst of stains. Surely then, when God says to us, "though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,' it is pure unbelief on our part to allow ourselves to be discouraged at even the worst of our failures, for God's washing of us must be at least as effective as the washing done by any human laundress. y They spoke against God, saying, / "Can God spread a table in the wilderness: (Ps 78:19] From whatever source it may come, discouragement produces many sad results. One of the worst is that it leads people to complain, to "speak against God." When the children of Israel were discouraged in the wilderness, they "spoke against God" and asked all sorts of God-dishonoring questions. If we examine the causes of the rebellious and complaining thoughts that sometimes beset us, we will find that they always begin in discouragement.
The truth is that discouragement always involves a kind of speaking against God. It implies some sort of failure on his part to act the way we think he should. The Israelites wandering in the desert asked whether God could provide a table for them. Our questions about God's power or willingness to help us may seem so reasonable and even humble tous, But they are really a way of speaking against God; such questions are displeasing to him, because they reveal the sad fact that we don't believe in him and trust in his salvation.
1+0 / Daily He Leads Me i) 5 They brought to the people of Israel an evil report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land, through which we have gone, to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature." (Nm 13:32) Another grievous quality of discouragement is its conta_giousness. N Nothing is more catching than discouragement.
When the spies sent out by Moses brought back an "evil report" of the promised land and told of the giants there, they so discouraged the people that they wept and refused to go into the land which the Lord had given them, and which they had started out in order to possess.
The evil report that so many Christians bring of their failures and their disappointments in the Christian life is one of the most discouraging things in our life together. The hearts of many young Christians are too often discouraged by their older brethren, who have but little idea of the harm they are doing by their doleful accounts of the trials of the way. oy But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
TT Sm 3056, KJV] If 1am asked how we are to get rid of discouragement, I can ealy say say what I say of 'so many other wrong spiritual habits, we we "Must give it up. It is never worthwhile to argue against discouragement. There is only one argument that can meet it, and that is the argument of God. When David was in the midst of what were perhaps the most discouraging moments of his life, when he had found his city burned, and his wives stolen, and he and the men with him had wept until they had no more power to weep, and when his men, exasperated at their misfortunes, spoke -of stoning. him, then we are told that he ' 'encouraged himself in the Lord his God." The result was a magnificent victory, in which all that they had lost was more than restored to them. This always will be, and always must be the result of a poten faith, because faith lays hold of the omnipotence of Go
August / 147 oo When they make a long blast with the ram's horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout witha great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat. (Jos 6:5) Strange words but true, for it came to pass just as the Lord had said. No one can suppose for a moment that this shout caused the walls to fall. And yet the secret of their victory lay in just this shout. For it was the shout of a faith which dared, on the authority of God's word alone, to claim a promised victory while there were no signs of this victory being accomplished. God treated them according to their faith. When they shouted, he made the walls fall down. aot ati God had declared that he had given them the city, and faith reckoned this to be true. Unbelief might well have said, "It would be better not to shout until the walls do actually fall, for, should there be any failure about it, the men of Jericho will triumph, and we shall bring dishonor on the name of our God."
But faith laughed at all such prudential considerations, and, confidently resting on God's word, gave a shout of victory, while yet to the eye of sense that victory seemed impossible. Long centuries afterwards the Holy Spirit thus records this triumph of faith in Hebrews: "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days."
Gs 8 In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. (Jn 16:33) Jesus says "I have overcome," not "I will overcome." It is already done, and nothing remains but for us to enter into the power of it. There is a great difference between saying, "the Lord will give" and "the Lord has given." A victory promised in the future may be hindered or prevented by a thousand contingencies, but a victory already accomplished cannot be prevented.
When our Lord assures us, not that he will overcome the world, but that he has already done so, he gives us an assured foundation for a shout of the most triumphant victory. Henceforward the forces of sin are a defeated and demoralized foe; and,
148 / Daily He Leads Me if we believe the words of Christ, we can meet them without fear, since we have been made more than conquerors through him who loves us.
I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. Jos 2:9)
The secret of victory over sin lies in meeting it, not as a foe that has yet to be conquered, but as an enemy that has already been overcome. Rahab knew that the Lord had given Jericho into the hands of the Israelites, and she told this to the spies sent by Joshua. If we were gifted with eyes that could see the unseen kingdom of evil, I believe we would discover that a terror and faintness have fallen upon all the forces of hell, and that they see, in every man and woman of faith, a sure and triumphant conqueror.
It is because we do not know this secret that we meet our spiritual enemies with such fear and trembling and suffer such disastrous defeats.
A Christian I know, who seemed to struggle in vain against temptation, was told this secret by one who had discovered it.
At once she went forth to a fresh battle with the confidence of an already accomplished victory. Of course she was victorious.
Afterwards, she said that she could almost hear the voice of the tempter saying as he slunk away, "Alas! the game is up. She has found out the secret. She knows that I have already been beaten, and I am afraid I shall never be able to overcome her again!"
Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour.
Resist him, firm in your faith. (1 Pt 5:8-9) It is no sin to hear the "roarings" of the devil, but it becomes sin if we stop and "roar" with him, or yield to his roarings. It is no sin to hear wicked men swearing along the street: it only becomes sin when we stop and join in with them. An old writer
August / 149 | says, "Eye not the temptations, but eye the Lord". and this | expresses a profound truth. I believe it is often unwise even to pray much about our temptations, for the fact of praying keeps
_ our mind fixed on them. The best way is a simple turning of the _ heart to the. Lord, as a childt to its mother, epee away from the
a Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. (Jn 16:33) This news is an immense help. We can and should meet temptation as an already-conquered foe. In earthly battles, the defeated army becomes disorganized and surrenders the moment they find out that the opposite side has discovered their defeat. The Civil War in America was prolonged far beyond the necessary time, because the North had not yet found out that the South was defeated. The South knew this and kept up the fight. But the moment the South found that the North had discovered the fact of their defeat, they collapsed without another battle. Sin is for us an already-conquered foe. The Lord
Jesus Christ has met and conquered it, and we are, if we only knew it, more than conquerors in him.
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September Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness. (Eph 6:11-12) Our enemies are "giants" now just as truly as they were in Israel's day. And cities, great as Jericho, with walls as high, confront us in our heavenly pathway. Like the Israelites of old, we have no human weapons with which to conquer them. Our armor, like theirs, must be the whole armor of God. Our shield is the same invisible shield of faith that protected them, and our sword must be, as theirs was, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word, that is, the promises and declarations of God. When our faith puts on this armor of God, and always takes hold of the sword of the Spirit, and we confront our enemy with a shout of undaunted faith, we cannot fail to conquer the mightiest giant or to take the strongest city.
152 / Daily He Leads Me o Then my enemies will be turned back / in the day when I call. / This I know, that God is for me. (Ps 56:9)
Do you know what the psalmist knew? Do you know that God is for you, and that he will cause your enemies to turn back?
If you do, then go out to meet your temptations, singing a song of triumph as you go. Meet your very next temptation in this way.
At its first approach, begin to give thanks for the victory. Claim continually that you are more than conqueror through him who loves you, and refuse to be frightened off by any foe. Shout the shout of faith with Joshua and Jehoshaphat and David and Paul.
I can assure you that when you shout, all your enemies will fall down dead before you.
The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. (1 Sm 17:37) To most of the Israelites it seemed that David had no chance whatever of conquering the mighty giant Goliath. But looking with the eyes of faith, David stood firm in his faith and convinced Saul to let him stand up against the Philistine.
However, Saul could not quite abandon his trust in his own accustomed armor, and he armed David with a helmet of brass and a coat of mail and his own powerful sword. But David soon ~ found this too cumbersome and took it off in favor of the simple weapons that the Lord had blessed before—his staff, his
slingshot, and five smooth stones out of the brook. Armed with these, he drew near to the giant.
When the giant saw the youth who had come to fight him, he disdained him, and said contemptuously, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field." To every eye, it looked like an unequal battle. But David's faith triumphed, and he shouted a shout of victory even before the battle had begun. "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have